Gia - session 260 - more walking and ice therapy

 Gia's leg was still swollen today, maybe even a little more so.  She seemed a little stiff on it, but lunged at the trot ok.  I decided to do another walk session with her, but out of laziness, decided to go bareback.  She's got quite a set of withers on her, so it was not terribly comfortable, but I managed.  Sometimes young horses will be over-reactive when a person rides without a saddle, but Gia could have cared less.  

We worked on stretching at the walk, as well as the medium walk.  I focused on getting a good march out of her since she is typically a bit lazy at the walk.  Plus, I was hoping that the motion would help loosen up the swelling.  I was able to get some really nice moments at the walk today!  

In a horse's life, there are always times when you are forced to slow down and work only at the walk, or only on ground work.  These can be frustrating moments, especially if you felt like you were really getting somewhere in your last ride or two.  However, I like to look at these moments as opportunities to really focus on some of the slower stuff like the walk work or the ground work, that we so often glance over because we are in a hurry to get to the fun stuff like cantering, jumping and field work.

After her ride, I treated her leg with more ice therapy.  I also coated the swollen area in furacin ointment, which heats up, and can also help reduce swelling.  Finally, I gave her a little phenylbutazone (aka bute) to help reduce swelling as well.  Bute is an NSAID similar to Tylenol.  Hopefully, her leg will look better tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!